International Consolidated Airlines Group PLC (LON:IAG) said its planes carried more than 100 million passengers during 2016, as it unveiled growth in its December traffic.
The FTSE 100-listed firm – which owns UK flag carrier British Airways, Ireland’s Aer Lingus, and Spanish airlines Iberia and Vueling – said group traffic, as measured in Revenue Passenger Kilometres, increased by 3.9% year-on-year last month.
IAG added that its load factor – how full its planes were - rose to 79.2% in December, up from 78.6%, with strong growth in group premium traffic for the month, which rose by 8.4 per cent compared to the previous year.
By individual airline, British Airways saw 1.9% traffic growth in December, while Aer Lingus, Iberia and Vueling achieved growth of 12%, 3.9% and 13%, respectively.
Overall in 2016, IAG said all its airlines carried a total of 100,675,056 passengers.
By comparison, last week, fellow FTSE 100-listed budget airline easyJet PLC (LON:EZJ) revealed that, on a rolling annualised basis, its passenger numbers rose to 74.5 million in December, up 6.6% from 69.8 million in November.
New operations considered ...
IAG also confirmed that it is considering setting up a new airline amid plans to set up a longhaul operation in Barcelona from June this year.
It said destinations being considered under the new Barcelona operation include Los Angeles, San Francisco, Buenos Aires, Santiago de Chile, Havana and Tokyo.
The group said an alternative would be use to existing resources from its current airlines, but added that a decision has yet to be made.